Andrew Koppel died of 'acute intoxication': Medical examiner

Andrew Koppel, the son of TV newsman Ted Koppel, died from a toxic mix of booze, heroin, cocaine and Valium the Medical Examiner's Office said Friday, June 18, 2010. (via Facebook)

Andrew Koppel, the son of legendary TV newsman Ted Koppel, accidentally overdosed on a combination of booze, heroin, cocaine and Valium, the Medical Examiner's Office said Friday.

Koppel, 40, the only son of the media icon, died in a seedy Washington Heights apartment on Memorial Day after going on a 12-hour booze bender the day before with a Manhattan waiter with whom he was friends.

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An initial autopsy was inconclusive, but Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner, said further tests showed Koppel died of "acute intoxication due to the combined effects" of alcohol, heroin, cocaine, and Valium.

"It's been ruled an accident," she said.

Police were called to the Audubon Ave. apartment at 1:30 a.m. on Memorial Day, after the waiter found him unconscious.

Koppel couldn't be revived.

Koppel, a lawyer who lived in Queens with his girlfriend and daughter, started boozing at a bar in Hell's Kitchen the previous afternoon.

His drinking buddy, Russell Wimberly, 32, initially told cops he had never met Koppel before the day they spent 12 hours drinking in a series of bars. Detectives checked Wimberly's cellphone records and learned he and Koppel had known each other for more than a month.

"I guess I was freaked out. I never dealt with a situation like this before," Wimberly told the Daily News recently. "The few nights we went out, he was the one with the money. He would buy drinks for everyone."

He said Koppel never told him about his famous father, mostly speaking about his 2-year-old daughter and his pregnant girlfriend. In the last hours of Koppel's life, Wimberly said, they met up at a Hell's Kitchen bar.

"When I met up with him, he was already trashed, and it was early afternoon," he said, adding that Koppel drank whiskey.

He said they ended up at the Washington Heights apartment of his friend Belinda Caban because Koppel was too drunk to go to another bar.

"He was falling over - a mess," Wimberly said. "He drank over 10 drinks that night. He lost his phone in the cab, and I kept trying to call it."

Koppel passed out in a spare bedroom as Caban braided Wimberly's hair. When Wimberly tried to wake him four hours later, Koppel was dead and polcie were called.